Afronline | 7/7/2015
Burundi’s independent journalists have almost entirely fled the country, driven out by intimidation, interrogation, arrests, violence, and death threats by state forces. Two months after the biggest wave of repression against the media, exiled reporters must rely on themselves, even if international aid shows up.
Pierre Claver Niyonkuru is expecting his first child in three months, but he still doesn’t know where it will be born. He hopes it won’t be in Kigali, Rwanda, where he can’t afford food and rent and where he has been in exile for the past five weeks.
His home country, Burundi, has seen grenades, Molotov cocktails, and fires since the end of April, when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced his candidature for a third term. The opposition, civil society and Catholic church deem the run unconstitutional and against the 2000 Arusha power-sharing accords signed during a 13-year civil war. An unsuccessful coup in mid-May sparked a new wave of repression by security forces and a pro-government youth militia.
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Naomi Cohen | journalist 